National Property Preservation Conference Returned to Washington, D.C.
Safeguard in the News
January 22, 2024
Source: DS News
Growing up, it seemed like every neighborhood had that one “creepy” house. Maybe it was abandoned, maybe it was home to a quiet introvert who occasionally peeks out through the curtains.
Regardless, these are places that collect mythology like fishing nets collect ocean-borne garbage, gathering stories and rumors that are pretty much always more interesting than reality. But out here in actual reality—those homes are probably just in need of a good property preservation vendor.
The property preservation sector serves a crucial function within the market: helping maintain vacant properties, ensuring the lawns are cut, the windows and doors are secure, and no one is breaking in to squat, strip out copper, or worse. They help prevent urban blight, maintain neighborhood property values, and eventually, help ensure those homes are in good shape when they return to the market.
But the difficulties facing the prop pres sector have rarely been more daunting, ranging from struggles to maintain a sufficient workforce, to the headwinds of inflationary costs, to the simple fact that much of the diminished REO stock is more spread out and requiring more “windshield time” just to get people out to them in the first place.
All these issues and more were up for discussion at November’s National Property Preservation Conference (NPPC) in Washington, D.C. Hosted by Safeguard Properties since 2004, the NPPC was the brainchild of Safeguard’s late founder, Robert Klein, who created the event to fill a perceived gap for an industry event that was solely focused on trends and challenges within the property preservation space, as opposed to just being included as a single panel or two within a more generalized event such as the Five Star Conference. As the official NPPC homepage puts it, Klein’s vision was to “bring together all facets of the mortgage field services industry to discuss pressing issues and develop solutions.”
This year’s NPPC lineup honored that legacy well, bringing together a top-tier lineup of industry speakers from prop pres, mortgage servicing, government agencies, and the GSEs. They all gathered for three beautiful November days at the InterContinental Washington D.C.-The Wharf, filing into a sun-filled ballroom overlooking the Potomac for a packed lineup of panels and speakers.
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